Grass Valley's Plan It Solar builds new electric car charger

Bill Trabucco is buying a Tesla car, and he lives off the grid, so Thursday afternoon testing a solar system that will charge his car at home, Plan it Solar / Sierra Solar, Idaho-Maryland Road, Grass Valley. The solar panels, batteries, and inverter for the solar system, and the car are all made in America.

Bill Trabucco is buying a Tesla car, and he lives off the grid, so Thursday afternoon testing a solar system that will charge his car at home, Plan it Solar / Sierra Solar, Idaho-Maryland Road, Grass Valley. The solar panels, batteries, and inverter for the solar system, and the car are all made in America.

Bill Trabucco is buying a Tesla car, and he lives off the grid, so Thursday afternoon testing a solar system that will charge his car at home, Plan it Solar / Sierra Solar, Idaho-Maryland Road, Grass Valley. The solar panels, batteries, and inverter for the solar system, and the car are all made in America. Aron Martin the Solar Designer that designed the system for the car.

Bill Trabucco is buying a Tesla car, and he lives off the grid, so Thursday afternoon testing a solar system that will charge his car at home, Plan it Solar / Sierra Solar, Idaho-Maryland Road, Grass Valley. The solar panels, batteries, and inverter for the solar system, and the car are all made in America.

Bill Trabucco is buying a Tesla car, and he lives off the grid, so Thursday afternoon testing a solar system that will charge his car at home, Plan it Solar / Sierra Solar, Idaho-Maryland Road, Grass Valley. The solar panels, batteries, and inverter for the solar system, and the car are all made in America.

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Plan It Solar has been ushering in the future for years, building portable chargers for owners of electric cars who don’t live close to charging stations. When a customer asked for a modified charging system that would work with previously incompatible Tesla vehicles, the Grass Valley-based company delivered. And to commemorate the achievement, Tesla sent down a car of its own on Thursday to show off the effectiveness of the new technology.

“What it demonstrates is that there’s lots of things we can do off grid as electric cars become more and more prevalent,” said Gil Mathew, owner of Plan It Solar.

The company built the charger with an inverter, MidNite Solar e-panel, SolarWorld modules, and Hawker batteries that can last up to 20 years, said Aron Martin, one of the key engineers on the project, who also stressed that it was built with products made in America.

“The future (of cars) is all electric. We need to put (our efforts) in clean technology,” Martin said. “The future is here ... and we need to get the power to the people.”